Category: The Forum

By Bill McGahanGeorgia Works! helps formerly incarcerated and homeless men become productive citizens. Since our founding in 2013 we have helped 311 men get jobs, remain clean and get an apartment, and virtually all have not returned to prison. We have an additional 170 men in the program today, all working toward full-time employment.
When a man comes to our voluntary program we ask him to do three things:
Be clean of alcohol and drugs (we drug test everybody weekly)
Take no handouts from the government or anyone else
Work
Over the course of 6-12 months we work with each of our clients on their “obstacles” to employment: the lack of a driver’s license, wage garnishments, criminal history, lack…
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It’s Friday!Canada 150: Happy birthday, O Canada! Canada was created on July 1, 1867, by theBritish North America Act (now the Constitution Act) and celebrates its 150th anniversary Saturday. Georgia has an especially good reason to wish our friends well: 330,600 Georgia jobs depend on trade and investment with Canada, according to the latest trade information. Trade between our state and Canada is valued at $9.8 billion; Georgia exports to Canada are $5.8 billion and imports are $4 billion. Find out more here.
Quotes of note
“Amid all the clash of conflicting interests, amid all the welter of partisan politics, every American can turn for solace and consolation to the Declaration of Independence and the…
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By Kelly McCutchen
A year after the Savannah City Council approved a $62,500 contract asking consultants to explore potential demand for a municipal broadband network, the firm finally has released its findings and recommendations.
Magellan Advisors outlines three options: building and operating a taxpayer-financed network providing service directly to consumers at a cost of $116 million; building and operating a taxpayer-financed network providing service only to government offices at a cost of about $13 million; or joint ownership of a fiber-to-premises system with a private entity at a total cost of nearly $13 million, with taxpayers responsible for $6.6 million.
Thankfully for the strained city budget, Magellan says the first option wouldn’t work here. Perhaps that’s because the system would…
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In a June 27, 2017, article by James Salzer, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution quoted Kelly McCutchen, president of the Georgia Public Policy Foundation, on the state auditing enrollee eligibility on the State Health Benefit Plan. The article, “Georgia saves up to $56 million booting ineligibles from health plan,” is reprinted below and is available online here.
Georgia saves up to $56 million booting ineligibles from health plan
By James Salzer
The state is hoping to save up to $56 million a year by removing ineligible family members of those enrolled in the State Health Benefit Plan from the program.
The state Department of Community Health, which administers Medicaid as well as the State Health Benefit Plan for teachers,…
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GEORGIA PUBLIC POLICY FOUNDATION NEWS RELEASE For Immediate Release June 26, 2017Contact: Benita Dodd, Georgia Public Policy Foundationbenitadodd@georgiapolicy.org | (404) 256-4050Foundation Welcomes Ga. High Court Ruling on Tax Credit ScholarshipsAtlanta – The Georgia Supreme Court ruled today that the state’s Qualified Education Tax Credit (tuition tax credit scholarships) program is constitutional.
Four Georgia taxpayers (Gaddy et al v Georgia Department of Revenue et al) filed suit challenging the program, which allows Georgians to donate to student scholarship organizations (SSOs) and receive a tax credit for their contribution up to a certain amount; the state limits the program to a total of $58 million in donations annually. The SSO must distribute the funds as scholarships…
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By Benita M. Dodd
What connection do air conditioning, airlines and education have with today’s overheated political climate? Each has contributed to the lack of understanding, empathy and tolerance. And the results are increasingly devastating.
Consider recent events:
In Arlington, Va., five people were injured June 14 in an assassination attempt on a Republican congressional baseball team as they practiced for a charity baseball game. On social media, some people celebrated their injuries as just deserts. The gunman, who later died of injuries sustained when Capitol police officers returned fire, had reportedly asked first whether it was Republicans or Democrats on the field. He was a supporter of Bernie Sanders, the losing Democrat in the presidential elections.
Also in Virginia,…
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It’s Friday!Quotes of note
“Federal laws and regulations raise the costs and slow the construction of infrastructure such as highways and pipelines. Federal subsidies for infrastructure distort the capital investment choices made by state, local, and private owners. And federal taxes reduce the return to investment in private infrastructure across every industry.” – Chris Edwards, “Who Owns U.S. Federal Infrastructure?”
“I’m no entrepreneur. I’m not likely to create a zillion jobs. So I should give to charity, and I do. I donate to the Doe Fund, Central Park Conservancy and other charities I can watch, so I see if they spend my donations well. But Bezos, Zuckerberg, Gates and all you entrepreneurs, stop feeling guilty. You,…
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By Kelly McCutchen
As the August recess fast approaches, procedural rules require health care to be addressed before Congress can move on to other important issues like taxes and infrastructure. Below are five ideas that would move health care reform in the right direction and hopefully create the momentum needed to get to a resolution.
Fund uncompensated care. Federal law requires hospital emergency departments to treat anyone regardless of their ability to pay, but federal funding covers only a small portion of the cost. In Georgia, for example, uncompensated care for people too poor to pay their bills amounts to over $1 billion a year. If hospitals can’t shift the cost to state and local taxpayers or private insurance,…
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It’s Friday!Remembering the Heroes
Many lives were likely saved by the actions of Crystal Griner and David Bailey, the Capitol Hill police officers who were on duty when Rep. Steve Scalise and others were shot on a baseball field this week in Virginia. Here in Georgia, Georgia Department of Corrections officers Christopher Monica and Curtis Billue were killed by inmates in a prison escape. As we keep these individuals and families in our thoughts and prayers, let’s also remember the many other public servants who stand ready every day to step into danger to keep us safe.
When Hank McCamish founded the Georgia Public Policy Foundation in 1991, he encouraged us to focus on ideas and not to…
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It’s Friday!EventsJune 15-17: FEEcon, a three-day gathering aimed at the nation’s young freedom lovers (students and young professionals) takes place at the Omni Hotel Downtown Atlanta. It offers 10 distinct tracks, 70-plus sessions and speakers including Lawrence Reed, Glenn Jacobs (former WWE wrestler), and Jimmy Wales (founder of Wikipedia). Full details on the schedule can be found at http://www.feecon.org/.Quotes of note
“The tragedy of modern man is not that he knows less and less about the meaning of his own life, but that it bothers him less and less.” – Vaclav Havel
“A general dissolution of principles and manners will more surely overthrow the liberties of America than the whole force of the common enemy.”…
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